A superfan accused of hacking Kelsea Ballerini and leaking her unreleased music has reached a deal with the star's lawyers not to share her songs with anyone else — and to name those he's already sent them.
Just a week after Ballerini sued Beau Ewing over allegations he illegally accessed her unfinished album and shared it with members of a fan club, lawyers for both sides said Wednesday (April 24) that they had agreed to a preliminary injunction against Ewing who will remain in place as the case progresses.
Under the terms of the order agreed to by his lawyers, Ewing is not only prohibited from distributing any of Ballerini's material, but must disclose who he has already shared it with and how he obtained her music.
“The defendant shall provide the plaintiffs with the names and contact information of all persons to whom the defendant distributed the recordings within thirty days of the entry of this order,” the agreement states. “Defendant will make every effort to disclose to Plaintiffs from whom and by what means it obtained the recordings.”
The agreement avoids a legal battle over such an injunction, which Ballerini's lawyers had asked a federal judge to impose regardless of Ewing's cooperation. In doing so, they warned that the hack had caused “immediate and ongoing harm” that would be made much worse if Ewing was allowed to widely release the allegedly leaked songs online.
“The most critical moment in an album's success is its original release date,” Ballerini's lawyers wrote in a motion seeking such an injunction. “Such hacks greatly reduce the ability of both artists and labels to realize the full benefits of the release, because the work is already available to download, for free, at the time of official release.”
Ballerini sued last week, alleging that Ewing – allegedly a former fan disillusioned with the star – had obtained an illegal “backdoor” into a device that held recordings of 12 songs still in production. Her lawyers say she then shared them with members of an online fan club.
“Because the recordings are not the complete master, the songs are not final and are subject to revision,” her lawyers wrote. “Ms. Ballerina and her team are the only ones who can say when the recordings were completed. Defendant's actions have deprived plaintiffs of this right and caused the distribution of unfinished works that may not yet meet plaintiffs' high professional standards ».
Almost immediately, the federal judge overseeing the case issued a so-called temporary restraining order — an emergency order barring Ewing from sharing any of Ballerini's material. That order set the stage for a longer-term preliminary injunction, which both sides were set to discuss at a hearing on Thursday (April 25).
Instead, Ewing's lawyers closed Wednesday's deal by accepting such an injunction. Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr. signed the deal on Thursday. Attorneys for either side did not immediately return requests for comment.
